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Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby are working in a field. Cows moo in the background. MOBY: Beep. TIM: No, we're not done. Unfortunately. Moby holds up a letter. TIM: Well, maybe we could take a break. Tim reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, my grandma told me that she went to a segregated grade school. What does that mean? From, Danielle. Tim hesitates. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, I'm with you. We're going to need some help on this one. Let's take a trip to our nation's capital. Moby fires up rocket engines in his leg, Tim grabs on, and they blast off. Their flight from the middle of the United States to Washington, D.C. is illustrated on a map. They land in front of the Supreme Court building. TIM: So, segregation. If you look up "segregate" in the dictionary, it says. Tim reads from a typed definition. TIM: Segregate: to separate or set apart from others, isolate. Back before the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 60s, African Americans were often treated differently than everybody else. They were sometimes set apart from others because of the color of their skin. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, it's called "racism." When one group of people is treated less fairly than others because of their race. MOBY: Beep. TIM: You're right. It's wrong to set anyone apart just because they're different. Even robots. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Moving on. Back then, public places like bathrooms, schools, and buses were segregated. An image shows a bus with white people seated in the front and African Americans seated in the rear. TIM: White people and black people did not even drink from the same water fountains. African Americans used to be called "colored." An image shows two drinking fountains. One is clean and well-maintained, and labeled "Whites Only." The other is dirty, in poor condition, and labeled "Colored Only." MOBY: Beep. TIM: I know. It sounds crazy, but people lived this way. Day in and day out. So, how did the segregation laws come about? Well, that's a complicated story. Tim points at the Supreme Court building behind them. TIM: The laws were made right here in Washington, D.C. After the Civil War, in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. An image shows the U. S. Capitol Building. TIM:This amendment protected the rights of all newly freed African Americans. This, in addition to the Constitution, guaranteed that all people were to be treated equally under the law. It said that you couldn't take away anyone's life, liberty, or property. But it didn't quite work out that way. People were still treated differently because of the color of their skin. In 1896, the United States Supreme Court heard the "Plessy versus Ferguson" case. An image shows the Supreme Court. TIM:The Supreme Court decided that segregation was OK, as long as the separate things were equal in quality. So, public property was segregated into separate but equal areas, one for African Americans, and one for whites. An image shows two drinking fountains next to each other. They are labeled "Whites Only" and "Colored Only." Both are clean and well-maintained. TIM: Problem was, most of the stuff that got separated wasn't very equal. Images show white students standing in front of a well-maintained school and African American students standing in front of a poorly-maintained school. Then a map of the U.S. shows the states in yellow, orange, and brown. TIM: That's how things were over a lot of the country for a long time. Separate but equal was a way of life that didn't make sense. Lots of people were unhappy about segregation, but it took a little girl, younger than me even, to change history. The map zooms in on Kansas. An image appears of an African American man with his young daughter. TIM: In 1950, in Topeka, Kansas, Oliver Brown tried to enroll his daughter Linda in the local grade school, which was all white. An image shows Linda standing at a bus stop. TIM: But because she was African American, the district made her go to a segregated school that was much farther away. Mister Brown and twelve other parents decided to sue the Board of Education for the right to send their children to the local school. So, he took them to court. An image shows the US Supreme Court and the words "Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka." TIM:The case made it all the way here, to the Supreme Court, in 1952. The lawyer for the Browns, Thurgood Marshall, argued that separate schools could never be equal. An image shows Thurgood Marshall. TIM: In 1954, all nine Supreme Court Justices decided in the Brown family's favor, making segregation in schools illegal. An image shows the nine Supreme Court Justices, seated in a courtroom. MOBY: Beep. TIM: That's right, Moby. Thurgood Marshall later served on the Supreme Court himself. An image shows Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Behind him stand the other eight Supreme Court Justices. TIM: So this landmark decision became law, and schools began the process of integration. An image shows students of different races standing near a school bus. TIM: It was a good decision, but it didn't get enforced in a lot of places for many years. Still, Brown versus The Board of Education of Topeka was one in a long line of victories for the Civil Rights Movement. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, it's strange. Even though the law doesn't separate us anymore, it's still a challenge for people of different races and backgrounds to mix together. Racism and separateness are still part of our world. An image shows Earth, floating in space. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, hopefully someday they won't be. That's up to us. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts